Sourced and curated.

We are dealing with an exceptionally astute and dangerous man...one of the most unscrupulous rascals that Australia has ever evolved—and for a young country it has turned out some very finished types.

Requiem · 1887

★ 1.0

Short story · Magazine · Detective fiction

I will govern according to the common weal, but not according to the common will.

The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax · 1911

★ 1.0

Speech · Political speech

James I

1621

★ 1.1

Travel writing

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.

1879

★ 1.1

What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done.

A Study in Scarlet · 1887

★ 1.2

London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.

The lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.

A Study in Scarlet · 1887

★ 1.2

Short story · Magazine · Detective fiction

Many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese-toasted, mostly.

The Adventure of the Copper Beeches · 1892

★ 1.2

Novel

The Germans, if this Government is returned, are going to pay every penny; they are going to be squeezed as a lemon is squeezed-until the pips squeak.

Treasure Island · 1882

★ 1.3

Speech · Political speech

Eric Geddes

1918

★ 1.7

Personal journal · Travel writing

My definition of Man is, "a Cooking Animal." The beasts have memory, judgment, and all the faculties and passions of our mind, in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook... Man alone can dress a good dish; and every man whatever is more or less a cook, in seasoning what he himself eats.

James Boswell

1773

★ 1.8

Lecture

The opinion seems to have got abroad, that, in a few years, all the great physical constants will have been approximately estimated, and that the only occupation which will be left to men of science will be to carry on these measurements to another place of decimals.

James Clerk Maxwell

1871

★ 1.8

Travel writing

Were I to... Take a peasant by the shoulders and whisper to him, "In your lifetime, have you known peace?" wait for his answer, shake his shoulders and transform him into his father, and ask him the same question, and transform him in turn into his father, I would never hear the word "yes" if I carried my questioning of the dead back for a thousand years.

Rebecca West

1941

★ 1.8

Treatise

A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.

James VI and I

1604

★ 1.9

O Caledonia, stern and wild, Meet nurse for a poetic child! Land of brown heath and shaggy wood, Land of the mountain and the flood.

These are my politics: to change what we can; to better what we can; but still to bear in mind that man is but a devil weakly fettered by some generous beliefs and impositions; and for no word however nobly sounding, and no cause however just and pious, to relax the stricture of these bonds.

The Lady of Minstrel · 1805

★ 1.9

Any authentic work of art must start an argument between the artist and his audience.

1885

★ 1.9

Rebecca West

1957

★ 1.9

Speech · Political speech

Do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man.

Iain Duncan Smith

2002

★ 1.9

And come he slow, or come he fast, It is but Death who comes at last.

1808

★ 1.9

November's sky is chill and drear, November's leaf is red and sear.

Marmion · 1808

★ 1.9

Look back, and smile at perils past!

1813

★ 1.9

Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life.

1881

★ 1.9

Falling in love is the one illogical adventure, the one thing of which we are tempted to think as supernatural, in our trite and reasonable world.

In the highlands, in the country places, Where the old plain men have rosy faces, And the young fair maidens Quiet eyes.

1881

★ 1.9

Song

Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.

1894

★ 1.9

Treatise · Philosophical literature

The great advantage of the mathematical sciences above the moral consists in this, that the ideas of the former, being sensible, are always clear and determinate.

A Treatise of Human Nature · 1739

★ 2.0

Philosophical literature

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding · 1748

★ 2.0

Opposing one species of superstition to another, set them a quarrelling; while we ourselves, during their fury and contention, happily make our escape, into the calm, tho' obscure, regions of philosophy.

1757

★ 2.0

In all matters of opinion and science... The difference among men is...oftener found to lie in generals than in particulars: and to be less in reality than in appearance. An explanation of the terms commonly ends the controversy; and the disputants are surprised to find, that they had been quarrelling, while at bottom they agreed in their judgement.

1758

★ 2.0

It is better to be a fool than to be dead.

1881

★ 2.0

To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.

I regard you with an indifference closely bordering on aversion.

1881

★ 2.0

Short story

1882

★ 2.0

There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has come upon him.

Travel writing · Autobiography and memoir

A Study in Scarlet · 1887

★ 2.0

Every one lives by selling something.

Youth is wholly experimental.

1892

★ 2.0

Poets...tho' liars by profession, always endeavour to give an air of truth to their fictions.

1892

★ 2.0

Treatise · Philosophical literature

A Treatise of Human Nature · 1739

★ 2.1

Money... Is none of the wheels of trade: It is the oil which renders the motion of the wheels more smooth and easy.

1752

★ 2.1

The cruellest lies are often told in silence.

A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.

Virginibus Puerisque · 1881

★ 2.1

Philosophical literature

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding · 1748

★ 2.2

Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.